The Finnkino movie theatre chain is a significant employer of young people in Finland and it has developed its strategy on young people’s terms in long term. The strategy, which was updated in 2017, can be crystallized into the SMILE concept, which encompasses Finnkino’s operating methods and is meant as a guide for both customer encounters and for interaction between employees within the company. The purpose of the concept is to ensure a five-star service that exceeds expectations and puts both the employee and the customer in a good mood.
SMILE consists of five instructions:
Show your passion
Make people happy
Invite people to return
Listen to people’s needs and provide attractive solutions
Enjoy!
The SMILE concept was introduced to every movie theatre in Finland in form of a SMILE storyline and cards. Manifesto was responsible for the project management of the material production and the clarification of its messages and their crystallization in the SMILE storyline. The story message was summarized by the core message of each letter (S, M, I, L, E). Finnkino’s employees participated in this process by sharing their ideas end examples of what the SMILE letters mean to them in practice.
The storyline and every letter were brought to life with Lotta Kauppi’s detailed illustrations that summarized how the SMILE concept can be seen in the company’s service and in the encounters between employees and customers.
– We wanted to summarize the concept’s core messages into a concrete booklet, focusing on images and storytelling through them. The images are timeless and by them the employees can time after time remind themselves the meaning of SMILE, says Pia Rautio, Director of Human Resources at Finnkino.
The SMILE concept is also strongly involved in Finnkino’s recruitment processes. The SMILE cards help to go through the job seeker’s and Finnkino’s way to act in a concrete level. The concept is also exported to every working day, for example, through posters, stickers and new coffee cups.
– We are very happy with the concept. The new SMILE materials have been received with delight and, for example, the SMILE cups brighten up the morning coffees. The strategy will continue to train our staff and new recruitments. The concrete booklets and cards are an excellent way to talk about our policies to make sure that we employ only persons who can SMILE, says Rautio.